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In this marine reserves newsletter, we are featuring two stories about our human dimensions research. Human dimensions is a discipline that looks at natural resource issues from different social science angles and encompasses: economics, sociology, anthropology and psychology.
A Fishing Perspective: Understanding Marine Reserve Effects
Natural resource issues can be contentious – and Oregon’s marine reserves are no exception. During development of the reserves, there were intensely divergent ideas among stakeholders regarding the necessity of reserves, the impacts on fishing communities, the science of marine reserve and the applicability to Oregon. Understanding these perspectives and how they change with marine reserves implementation is one way to gain insights into the effects of marine reserves.
One way to understand effects on fishing communities is through anthropological research involving qualitative interviews with members of the fishing community. The ODFW Marine Reserves program teamed up with environmental anthropologist, Dr. Elizabeth Marino from Oregon State University Cascades to conduct a pilot study exploring reserve impacts to fishing communities. Her findings are reported in this recently released report, "Cape Falcon Marine Reserve: A Pilot Study of Impacts, Outcomes and Effort Shift of Commercial and Charter Fishers."
Click here to access the full report.
Who Is Visiting the Marine Reserves & Why?
Visitors are the bread and butter of many coastal economies, and out-of-town visitors comprise the majority of people visiting the ocean shores adjacent to marine reserve sites. Over the past several years the ODFW Marine Reserves Program has been conducting visitor surveys to gain a better understanding of who visits these areas and why. This baseline data can be compared with future studies to see if any change in the visitor population has occurred in connection with the marine reserves.
One goal of Oregon’s marine reserves is to avoid adverse impacts to ocean users and coastal communities. Because tourism is a mainstay of many coastal towns, understanding visitor behaviors will help shed light on if and what types of impacts marine reserve implementation has on local communities over time. These initial baseline studies provide the foundation to make comparisons in the future. Some of the results are presented in the infographic below. Click here to read more...
To access the full reports, and read more about these visitor surveys, click below.
Click here to access the report on the 2014 Visitor Intercept Survey: Cape Perpetua, Otter Rock, and Cascade Head Marine Reserves
Click here to access the report on the 2015 Visitor Intercept Survey: Cape Falcon Marine Reserve
Reports From the Field
See More Oregon Marine Reserves News
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